Saturday, 12 March 2011

Water marbling (and hello.)

Lets dive right in to how to achieve a successful water marbled nail :)

You'll need a cup of room temperature water, a toothpick, tissues, nail polishes of your choice and tape. Sellotape or masking tape works well here.

When you're picking out your nail polishes, try not to go for Barry M, in my experience (and others!) Barry M doesn't work. You need a nail polish that will spread out when you drop it in the water. So quickly have a tester with the colours of your choice to see if they spread out across the surface of the water.

Before starting, tape up your fingers! This is important. However much it makes you look silly, you'll thank me later when you don't have the pattern all over your fingers. Learn from my mistakes ;)

Drop a tiny drop of one of the colours of your choice in the water and wait for it to spread out before adding other colours. One by one, slowly making a bullseye in the water. Try and not wait too long inbetween otherwise the nail polish will start to dry.

Now with a toothpick, lighty drag across the design, here you can make whatever pattern you like. I personally like having a different design on each nail but if you're one for having them all the same just make sure you drag across the surface the same each time.

Then dip your finger in. Make sure you put the nail in at the same time and push into the water.

Get your toothpick and clean up the rest of the nail polish on the water surface and pull out your finger afterwards. If you don't clean it up, you're more likely to ruin the design you just created. Clean off the toothpick on a tissue.

Take the tape off your fingers, waited a few minutes for it to dry (it will be the most quick drying nail polish design you'll ever have done!) and continue with the other nails. After they're all done, add a top coat to protect the design and make those beautys shine!

Pictures of the finished product:

Good luck! Have you ever done water marbling/planning to after reading this? Would be interested to hear! Have a nice day & hugs.